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Or we could just live without so much sharing and communication. We did it before social media and we were arguably better off. Why is it necessary to be so “cl
by jckahn 2y ago
Or we could just live without so much sharing and communication. We did it before social media and we were arguably better off. Why is it necessary to be so “closely” connected to so many people? Aren’t the people in our more immediate orbit enough?
Yes yes, I understand marginalized people need to find each other. Alternative options like Mastodon already solve that problem better than Facebook because they aren’t owned by Big Tech/the US government.
- sdflhasjd 2y agoThe thing is that shunning WhatsApp and Facebook doesn't put you back to a time before they existed, it cuts you off completely because they've dispaced what used to exist. Before Facebook there was email and SMS, before that there were phone calls, letters, etc. None of those really exist any more. If something happens, it goes into the family WhatsApp group, if you're not in the group then you don't find out. My parents and their generation still answer the phone at least, and I convinced some fairly close people to use Signal, but generally I'm more disconnected from my family than I would have been in another time.
- mcherm 2y agoI truly do not use WhatsApp or Facebook, and I do not find myself cut off from the world in the way you describe. For instance, family groups communicate via text messages and/or email threads. Maybe my family DOES also communicate via Facebook and I am just missing out on it... I genuinely wouldn't know. But I don't feel disconnected.
- forgetfreeman 2y ago> it cuts you off completely because they've dispaced what used to exist It really doesn't though. You remove trivial inputs from distant acquaintances, old co-workers, 5th cousins, and all manner of other individuals you'd traditionally have no input from. Meaningful relationships survive bailing on social media.
- jckahn 2y agoThis has been my experience after largely leaving social media. I’m much happier with less noise and nonsense in my life. It’s been a significant net benefit.
- sdflhasjd 2y agoThe thing is, I'm not talking about my 6th cousin twice removed, it's my literal siblings. At least in the UK, it seems nobody born after 1990 will use anything other than WhatsApp to message people.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoYou may well have something there. I'm older, as are all of my friends, and the bulk of my family are non-technical. There may well be some selection bias in effect with folks who remember what the world was like before ubiquitous online bullshit having less difficulty reverting to more "traditional" methods of communication.
- dingnuts 2y agoSir you just said phone calls and letters don't exist anymore. Do you know how happy your mom would be if you gave her a call or sent her a letter? Get off Facebook!
- JohnFen 2y ago> it cuts you off completely because they've dispaced what used to exist That hasn't been my experience at all. All of the other methods of communication still exist. What FB gives is greater convenience, but not using it doesn't cut me out of anything. Not even those things where FB is the primary way people organize.
- pavel_lishin 2y ago> Alternative options like Mastodon already solve that problem better than Facebook because they aren’t owned by Big Tech/the US government. Them not being owned by Big Tech/government does not make them a better solution to the problem. It's a benefit (to some, not all), but if you're trying to recruit "normies" away from social media to, well, a different social media, then that should not be the first bullet point.
- jckahn 2y agoI’m not really interested in converting the normies. It’s just not worth the effort. People are free to do what they want. My point is simply that we have better options and we’re free to choose them.